Every year since 2017, the co-coordinators of the Sustainability Faculty Learning Community host the January Institute for Sustainability Faculty Fellows.  This year, the entire campus community is invited to the following events of the 2021 January Institute, all being held on Monday, January 11:

Interested in attending one or more of the workshops below?  Please contact Campus Sustainability Coordinator Lisa Mitten at mittenl@newpaltz.edu to request the WebEx link.

Sustainable Development on Campus and Across the Region 

Monday, January 11 from 9 am to 10:15

SUNY New Paltz as a Living Laboratory for Sustainability with Rosi Kerr

Director of Sustainability Rosi Kerr of Dartmouth College brings experience in community-based energy systems, energy markets, environmental nonprofits and organizational change to her role at Dartmouth. She supports faculty teaching and research on the farm site and engages students in hands-on learning about sustainable agriculture and food systems. Dartmouth has decreased trash and increased recycling, but Kerr’s plans don’t stop there. She aims to reduce Dartmouth’s greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent before 2050 and inspire future sustainability leaders—with help from the college’s new sustainability minor and Green Community Fund. Rosi Kerr on Dartmouth as a living laboratory. Rosi’s Ted Talk, Climate Change is Happening: Find Your Lever

Campus-Regional Partnerships for the Green New Deal with Dr. Evelyn Wright

Deputy County Executive Evelyn Wright leads Ulster County’s Green New Deal initiative and works with the Departments of Economic Development, Environment, and Planning, among others. Prior to joining Ulster County, she worked for twenty years as an economist and energy policy analyst, assisting local, state, and national governments and environmental organizations to develop decarbonization and clean energy policies. She has also taught economics and environmental policy at Franklin and Marshall College, Towson University, and The Washington Center. Her PhD in Ecological Economics is from Rensselaer. Evelyn grew up in the Albany area and is delighted to be resettled in the Hudson Valley serving communities she loves.

This is a Climate Emergency: Local & Global Leverage Points

Monday, January 11 from 10:15 to 11:15

With Associate Professor Andrea Frank (Art Department) and Campus Sustainability Coordinator Lisa Mitten (Office of Campus Sustainability)

Andrea and Lisa will guide workshop participants to deepen their understanding of the urgency of the climate crisis using Climate Interactive’s free, online EN-ROADS modeling tool, a climate change solutions simulator.  If the entire world replicated the actions that SUNY New Paltz has taken to date to drawdown greenhouse gas emissions, what would warming and sea level rise be in 2050?  In 2100?  What is the depth and breadth of solutions necessary to drawdown emissions globally?

Sustainable Development Across the State and Globe

Monday, January 11 from 1 to 2pm

Innovative DEC Stakeholder Engagement Strategies with Libby Zemaitis

Libby Zemaitis leads the Climate Change Program at the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation Hudson River Estuary Program. Her team helps communities adapt to climate change and build resiliency to flooding, heat and social risks using nature-based solutions, in collaboration with the DEC Office of Climate Change and other state agency and non-profit partners. The Climate Change team is committed to incorporating environmental justice into their work and the state’s Climate Smart Communities program. Libby grew up in the Hudson Valley where she has spent the last 15 years working on climate change, clean tech and sustainable business. She did her M.B.A. in Strategic Management and M.S. in Climate Science and Policy from Bard College, and a B.A. in Geology from Vassar College.